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* 


REFORM  JUDAISM 


DISCOURSE; 


AT  THE  CKI.KllKATION  OF 


Dr,  Samuel  Hirsch's  I0th  Anniversary 

DELIVERED  BY  HIS  SON, 

THE  RABBI  OF  CHICAGO  SINAI  CONGREGATION. 


REFORM  JUDAISM. 


-^DISCOURSE*- 


AT  THE  CELEBRATION  OK 


Dr,  Samuel  Hirschjs  7Dth  Anniversary J 

DELIVERED  B  Y  HIS  SON, 

THE  RABBI  OF  CHICAGO  SINAI  CONGREGATION. 


-TO  THE- 


* 

Inform  CongrEgation  "KenesEth  Israsl 


-OF- 


PHILADELPHIA, 

I  inscribe  most  respectfully  this  discourse,  as  a  small  token  of 
gratitude,  and  in  the  assured  consciousness,  that  they,  a  Reform 
Congregation,  assembled  in  honor  of  a  Reform-Rabbi,  expected 
from  me,  the  teacher  of  a  sister  Radical  Congregation,  on  that 
occasion,  the  exposition;  of  the  tendencies .'  of  Reform  Judaism,  as 
contained  in  this  discourse,  now  reproduced  in  somewhat  ampli- 
fied form,  but  unchanged  in  {cmper,  tone,  and  language. 

EMIL  G.  HIRSCH. 
Chicago,  III. ,  June  i6th,  1885. 


Stack 
Annex 


5~cro 


STANDING,  as  I  do,  in  the  midst  of  this  garden  of  flowers 
whose  every  budlet  is  symbol  of  respect,  whose  every 
breath  is  fragrant  with  the  rich  perfume,  of  veneration,  I 
must  follow,  above  all,  the  promptirigs  of  my  fyeart,  and 
return  thanks  to  you  for  this  ovation  so  generously  brought  to  one, 
if  dear  to  you,  still  dearer  to  me.  We,  who  are  privileged  to  call 
him  father,  had  thought  to  celebrate  this  glad  day  in  the  quiet  sur- 
roundings of  yonder  home.  The  family  table  was  intended  by  us 
to  be  aglow  this  hour  with  the  soft  light  of  that  love — a  tribute  of 
filial  gratitude — which  is  enkindled  in  the  hearts  of  children  rivetted 
by  thousand  golden  ties  to  that  of  the  devoted,  self-forgetting  pa- 
rent. Your  generosity  demands  from  us  the  sacrifice  of  the  quiet 
pleasures  of  a  private  family  gathering  for  the  louder  demonstrations 
of  a  public  celebration.  It  is  a  sacrifice  you  demand,  but  one 
that  brings,  in  return,  its  rich  compensation.  The  circle  of  the 
family  has  widened  ;  it  merges  into  the  larger  rhythm  of  a  spiritual 
homestead.  The  family  hearthstone  has  grown  into  the  altar,  the 
home  into  this  house  sacred  by  its  clustered  associations.  For,  in 
very  truth,  the  congregation  here  assembled,  has  a  right  to  number 
itself  among  the  'family  of  its  venerated  teacher.  The  ties  of  a 
spiritual  union  replace  the  cords  of  blood  identity;  relationship  ot 
thought  that  of  the  flesh.  Two  decades  have  ripened  into  richest 
fruitage,  the  seedgerms  of  spiritual  oneness  ;  sunlit  times  of  joy,  as 
well  as  beclouded  days  of  sorrow,  have  wooed  into  blossom  the 
flowers  of  affection.  He,  to  whom  to  do  honor  this  congregation  is 
gathered,  has  faithfully  shared  your  joys  and  borne  with  you  your 
tribulations.  At  opened  graves,  he  stood  with  you,  mellowing  with 
words  of  consolation  the  pungent  bitterness  of  bereavement,  his 
tears  mingling  with  yours,  bedewing  the  soil  ready  to  keep  what 
was  mortal  of  many  near  and  dear  to  you.  And  often  the  sad  vis- 
itor, monitor  of  our  mortality,  has  come  during  the  well-nigh 
rounded  score  of  busy  years  spent  with  and  among  you. 


This  spiritual  family  counts  to-day  the  links  in  the  golden  chain 
of  its  love,  and  alas  !  many  are  broken.  I  look  around — I,  who  am 
almost  a  stranger  among  you — and  miss  many  familiar  faces.  Many 
a  voice  that  erst  would  welcome  me  home,  on  former  returns  to  this 
city  of  my  adolescence,  is  silent  now  ;  many  a  hand  then  stretched 
out  to  give  warm  greeting  to  the  guest,  is  now  cold,  benumbed  by 
the  untimely  chill  of  death.  Where  are  those  two  so  trusty  men, 
who  for  the  larger  portion  of  my  father's  ministration  among  you, 
stood  at  the  helm  of  the  ship,  guiding  its  course  with  firm  grasp, 
through  dangerous  eddies  and  over  treacherous  shoals  ?  They  sleep 
the  sleep  of  the  just — planted  in  the  "acre  of  God" — their  memory 
blessed  among  us  forever.  And  with  them  so  many  friends  are 
gathered  into  eternal  rest !  Such  memories,  common  and  sacred  to 
teacher  and  congregation  alike,  are,  indeed,  strong  rivets  of  spirit- 
ual union;  in  the  joy  of  one  that  shared  your  burdens,  well  may 
you  claim  to  participate.  And  even  so,  many  a  time  the  merry 
peals  of  marriage  feasts  have  called  him  to  your  sides,  and  you  to 
his.  The  vows  of  love — many  of  you  have  spoken  them  before  him 
that  he  might  bless  the  auspicious  beginnings  of  your  jointed  lives. 
The -intimacy  of  hours  of  tears  and  smiles  accords  the  right  to  you 
to  crowd  aside  his  own  children,  and  speak  with  them  the  words  of 
thankfulness  that  he,  your  guide,  he,  our  father,  has  been  spared 
us  to  see  the  light  of  this  day. 

But  a  deeper  meaning  than  even  the  gathering  of  his  spiritual 
family,  this  hour  must  treasure.  Is  it  merely  a  tribute  to  an  honest 
man,  who  ever  valued  principles  higher  than  persons,  prized  perform- 
ance of  duty  more  than  perfidious  policy  ?  I  hold  not !  Honesty  is, 
indeed,  not  such  a  rare  virtue  in  the  Jewish  pulpit,  that  its  precious 
possession  should  call  for  special  recognition.  Many  there  are,  who 
like  the  beloved  hero  of  this  occasion,  showed  in  critical  hours  stead- 
fastness of  purpose,  at  greatest  sacrifice  of  comfort  and  worldly  gain. 
Many  there  are,  who  like  him,  would  rather  take  up,  with  all  they 
treasure  near  their  heart,  the  pilgrim's  staff  than  immolate  at  the 
altar  of  fleeting  popularity,  principles  and  character.  No,  deserv- 
edly known  as  he  is,  for  the  unbending  firmness,  when  fundamental 
'issues  trembled  in  the  balance,  this  quality  alone  cannot  be  the 
melody  of  this  beautiful  hour. 


Or,  is  it  meant  to  be  a  protest  against  the  cry  so  often  heard  to- 
day that,  as  religion  is  an  imposition,  so  its  teachers  are  self-consci- 
ous impostors  ?  Such  rebuke,  indeed,  would  be  timely.  For  the 
"philosophers,"  on  whose  lips  this  charge  never  stales,  are  as  plenti- 
ful as  the  stars  in  heaven  and  the  sand  by  the  sea.  But  the  refut- 
ation of  their  ill-directed  onslaught  lies  in  the  seventy  years  them- 
selves, the  happy  completion  of  which  we  remember.  The  three 
score  and  ten  are  incarnation  of  the  truth  that  religion  is  not  an  im- 
position, that  the  Rabbi  plays  not  the  impostor.  Well  nigh  fifty 
years  has  your  teacher  eaten  the  bread  of  the  Rabbi.  Has  he  sold 
himself  for  bread  and  butter  — as  they  would  have  it  ?  Bread  and 
butter,  indeed  !  The  bread  of  the  Jewish  Minister  is  but  seldom 
buttered.  I,  who  have  been  privileged  from  earliest  infancy  to 
share  the  intimacy  of  such  a  life,  I  know — and  many  know  it  with 
me — that  the  bread — the  mere  bread — of  the  Rabbi  is  not  com- 
pensation for  the  would-be-entailed  loss  of  manhood  !  The  im- 
postor seeks  for  greater  profit  than  the  ministry  at  best,  does 
offer.  Impostor,  indeed  !  Is  this  reward  for  slave-service  to  be 
the  defenceless  victim  of  malicious  gossip;  to  have  your  purest 
motives  misconstrued  ;  to  be  the  target  of  every  little  scribbler 
of  the  so-called  Jewish  press,  generally  a  coward,  sending  his  harm- 
less arrows  from  the  cover  of  anonymity?  Bread,  indeed  !  As  though 
he  who  is  fit  to  occupy  a  Jewish  pulpit  was  too  stupid  to  cast  his  lot 
in  other  lines  ;  as  though  he  would  not  be  as  successful  a  merchant, 
as  skilful  a  physician,  as  eloquent  an  advocate,  as  the  philosophers 
who  assail  him  !  No  !  the  minister  is  not  an  impostor.  It  is  his 
heartblood  that  he  pours  out  in  his  sacred  calling.  Days  like  the 
present — rich  compensation  as  it  brings  for  an  honest  life  honestly 
spent, — are  rare  ;  few  dare  hope  to  reach  its  golden  dawn.  To 
silence  the  silly  cry  of  silly  accusers  cannot  be  the  burden  of  its  in- 
spiring message. 

What  then  does  this  glad  hour  proclaim  ?  If  I  mistake  not,  it  is 
meant  above  all  to  answer  another  cry,  loudly  iterated  among  us  to- 
day. To  voice  the  answer,  I  conceive  you  have  called  me  to  occupy 
this  place.  Forget  that  it  is  the  son  who  speaks  to  you.  For,  j'jxj 
DS^Sn  *"?]}  TJ7O  P'""'  ^6  son  cann°t  give  testimony  in  behalf  of 
the  father.  Not  filial  sentiments  alone,  not  what  Dr.  Hirsch  is  to 


your  Congregation,  should  winged  words  of  mine  now  spell  ;  not 
what  services  he  has  rendered  to  the  Judaism  of  this  city  have  I 
from  distant  town,  at  your  bidding  come  to  describe.  But  me, 
the  Minister  of  a  Radical  Reform  Congregation,  have  you,  a 
Reform-Congregation,  summoned  to  speak  to  you  of  the  yeo- 
man's service  done  by  your  Rabbi  to  the  cause  of  Radical  Re- 
form. Fifty  years  of  the  seventy  closing  to-day  were  consecrated 
to  that  cause.  Is  it  true  that  those  years  of  study  and  thought 
have  labored  for  a  barren  shadow?  This,  many  among  us, 
would  have  us  believe.  Reform  is  a  failure  !  this  the  hoarse 
cry  of  ravens,  ready  to  fatten  on  the  crumbs  from  Reform  ban- 
quets. Ah,  in  very  truth,  if  reform  meant  nothing  higher  than 
the  puerilities  of  "  hats  off  or  hats  on  !"  if  without  principle  for  its 
foundation  it  was.  but  the  outgrowth  of  the  whims  of  congregational 
majorities,  it  deserved,  indeed,  to  fail  ;  and  no  one  could  rejoice 
more  in  its  failure  than  I  should.  Radical  Reform  is  not  a  failure. 
1  Conservative  Reform — a  knife  without  a  blade  and  handle — may  be 
such  !  Radical  Reform  has  a  principle  in  which  it  lives.  It  can- 
not acquiesce  iit  the  call  for  a  truce  of  warfare,  now  uttered  by 
many  who  are  weary  of  the  strife.  Like  its  God,  HDIl^D  JJM&$ 
it  is  a  warrior  ;  it  is  aggressive.  Not  yet  can  it  rest  on  its  laurels  !  The 
great  men  who  are  its  saints,  were  all  weaponed  with  the  prophetic 
hammer,  splintering  to  fragments  the  rock  of  opposition.  Willing 
to  co-operate  in  all  directions,  where  principles  were  not  at  stake, 
they  rather  stood  alone,  than  sacrifice  their  very  spiritual  life  to  the 
Moloch  of  peace,  and  the  cheap  praise,  to  be  acquired,  by  reading 
marrowless  essays — I  should  almost  have  said  school-boy  essays — 
in  Rabbinical,. conventions.  Radical  Reform  Judaism  is  true  to  its 
German  origin.  It  willingly  bears  the  burden  of  this  foreign  birth  ; 
but  ,it  does  insist  upon  its  inalienable  right  to  dwell  and  develop  in 
America.  The  danger  to  Judaism  in  America  lies,  most  assuredly 
not  in  the  diffusion  of  German  ideas,  or  German  skepticism  if  you 
so  choose,  but  rather  in  the  affectation  of  American  devotionalism  and 
emotionalism,  which  is  as  far  removed,  with  its  Bibliolatry,  from 
sound  honest  old  Jewish  Orthodoxy  as.  is  the  quiet  Pacific  from  the 
boisterous  Atlantic.  This  ' '  Americanism  ' '  is  even  now  bearing 
curious  fruit.  It  gives  us^he  Hebrew,  where  we  should  have  the 


Jew.  Radical  Reform  claims  the  latter  as  its  title  of  honor,  leaving 
the  former  gladly  to  the  Young  Men's  Hebrew  Association.  For  it 
is  conscious  that  as  Jews  we  have  a  mission — while  as  Hebrews  we 
would  be  but  one  of  the  many  races  peopling  the  Earth —  a  mission 
in  a  higher  sense  even  than  our  Secret  Orders  represent,  among 
whom  the  word  is  a  favorite,  but  the  substance  yet  a  foreigner.  To 
prove  that  this  is  the  tendency  of  Radical  Reform  Judaism  ;  that, 
therefore,  it  is  not  destructive  but  in  the  highest  sense  constructive — 
a  glance  at  its  history  will  suffice,  a  history  which  may  be  the  more 
rightfully  reviewed  on  this  occasion,  as  one  of  its  brightest  pages 
bears  the  name  of  our  Septuagenarian. 

It  is  customary  to  locate  the  source  of  Reform  Judaism  in  the 
writings  of  Moses  Mendelssohn.  But  this  is  a  mistake.  Moses 
Mendelssohn  was  a  Reformer  in  another  direction.  He  was 
the  outrider  of  dawn,  announcing  the  speedy  coming  of  the  sun's, 
radiant  chariot  ;  but  the  day  star's  rising  he  saw  not.  His  service 
to  Reform  Judaism  was  of  a  preparatory  character.  He  shared 
the  philosophy  of  his  time.  With  Kant,  for  him  religion  was 
natural  in  man,  an  inborn  grace  and  quality  of  humanity  need- 
ing no  revelation  from  above.  Judaism,  however,  was  not  re- 
ligion; it  was  legislation  divinely  revealed,  and  -as  such  fixed 
in  its  obligatory  character  forever.  His  philosophy  thus  made  him 
an  orthodox.  The  misconception  to  class  Mendelssohn  among  the 
religious  reformers  has  forged,  in  many  a  controversy,  the  suppos- 
edly invulnerable  armor  of  many  a  knight  of  the  good  Jewish  press 
who  will  quote  Mendelssohn  in  refutation  of  the  later  "Reformers,", 
and  shout  most  lustily  "treason,"  upon  the  .discovery  that  the 
younger  Reformer  deviates  in  spirit  from  his  assumed  forerunner. 
The  untenability  of  Mendelssohn's  religious  views  is  attested  by  his- 
tory's verdict,  written  in  the  wrecked  life  of  his  own  children.  Only 
as  a  social  Reformer  do  we  glorify  the  sage  of  Dessau.  It  was  he, 
through  his  translation  of  the  psalms  and  the  pentateuch,  that  made 
the  Jews  in  Germany  Jewish  Germans.  He  taught  them  the  lan- 
guage of  the  fatherland.  He  thus  unlocked  the  gates  of  their  lin- 
guistic Ghetto.  He  furnished  them  the  key  wherewith  to  open  the 
doors  of  the  palace  of  German  philosophy,  destined  speedily  to 
emancipate  German  Judaism  from  the  heavy  bondage  of  pilpulistic 


8 

Talmudism.  And  they  came,  the  young  men,  that  had  learned 
with  sure  foot  to  walk  the  jungles  of  Talmudic  disquisitions,  with  a 
thirst  well  nigh  unquenchable  for  the  more  methodic  training,  the 
systematized  knowledge  to  be  garnered  in  the  halls  of  German  learn- 
ing. From  the  East,  they  passed  to  the  West,  and  while  in  the  cognate 
sounds  of  the  tongues  of  the  Syrian  mountains  or  the  Arabian  de- 
sert, they  listened  to  music  familiar  to  them,  wont  as  they  were  to 
chant  the  songs  of  the  Jordan  ;  in  the  Western  philosophy,  a  new 
revelation  came  to  them,  a  new  world  was  opened  to  them,  into 
which  they  had  to  grow,  and  from  which  they  drew  the  secret  of 
Judaism's  innermost  being,  the  story  of  its  rise  and  development, 
the  necessity  and  power  of  its  rejuvenation.  To  that  generation  of 
men  belong  the  clustered  stars  of  first  magnitude,  whose  light  will 
shine  on  for  a  long  time  still,  though  the  orbs  from  which  it  sprang, 
be  no  longer  set  in  the  visible  skies.  The  German  University  trained 
the  giant  intellect  of  our  Zunz,  the  man  of  encyclopedic  grasp,  clear- 
ing the  track  across  the  tangled  forests  of  Jewish  literature.  It  gave  us 
our  Geiger,  critical  and  constructive  ;  Jost,  comprehensive  and  tho- 
rough; Stein,  poetic  and  silver-tongued  ;  Wechsler,  deep  and  keen  ; 
Herzfeld,  learned  and  persevering.  At  the  feet  of  the  master-minds 
of  Germany,  these  had  sat ;  and,  indeed,  not  to  no  purpose.  The 
solitude  of  the  student's  closet  measured  not  the  sweep  of  their  en- 
thusiasm. From  sered  parchments  and  dusty  scrolls  ;  from  volumes 
hoary  with  age,  and  documents  mossed  by  the  centuries,  they  turned 
to  the  fresher  light  and  brigther  colors  of  active  life.  The  granite 
rocks  they  had  quarried  in  the  mines  of  Jewish  history  and  thought, 
they  now  spread  as  a  foundation  whereon  to  rear  the  grander  struct- 
ure of  Israel's  new  Temple.  Ah  !  those  were  glad  days  of  virgin 
Springtide,  when  enthusiasm  tempered  in  its  glow  by  the  balmy 
breezes  of  chaste  poesy,  warmed  and  wooed,  stirred  and  staid  the 
hearts  of  German  Israel !  Those — the  ever  memorable  years  of  the 
German  Rabbinical  conventions,  where  men  met,  jealous  of  their  in- 
dividual independence,  but  zealous  for  the  grand  cause  common  to 
all !  Science,  the  kind  mother,  had  pointed  the  way  ;  her  sons  were 
not  slow  to  follow  the  direction.  The  men  of  theory  were  joined  by 
the  men  of  practice.  Holdheim,  the  skilled  dialectician,  grasped 
the  hand  of  Geiger;  Einhorn,  of  fiery  tongue  and  shrivelling  scorn; 


the  two  Adlers,  the  peers  of  all;  Phillipsohn,  journalist  and  preacher 
— with  those  named  before,  and  many  more,  pilgrimmed  to  Braun- 
schweig, and  Frankfort  and  Breslau,  planning,  counselling,  working, 
debating,  reviving,  reconstructing!  The  old  matron,  Judaism,  still 
lived.  The  tide  of  apostacy,  the  bastard  offspring  of  the  Mendels- 
sohnian  era,  was  diked:  a  new  day  had  come — a  glorious  day  of  new 
life  and  new  love!  Youngest  of  all,  but  perhaps  eagerest,  certainly 
equally  well  equipped,  was  Samuel  Hirsch. 

The  Republic  of  letters  had  long  since  conferred  upon  him  the 
crown  of  citizenship.  His  "  Religionsphilosophie "  had  anchored 
Jewish  theology  to  the  firm  mooring  of  systematic  philosophy.  His 
" Messias-Lehre" — philosophic  sermons,  had,  while  exposing  the 
naked  cowardice  of  the  first  families  of  Berlin  who,  to  gain  position 
and  honor,  led  their  children  to  the  baptismal  font,  boldly  sketched 
the  true  trend  of  Judaism  and  its  true  hopes;  and  his  "Reform'1'' 
had  shown  his  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  hour's  burning  issues. 
—These  m'en  met!  Is  it  true,  their  work  was  in  vain?  Is  it 
true,  that,  as  we  are  assured  in  the  beautiful  organs  of  new  Ortho- 
doxy, that  their  undertaking  was  prompted  by  unprincipled  yielding 
to  convenience  and  fashion?  Who  will  dare,  if  not  lost  to  truth, 
dare  repeat  the  slander  ?  No,  we  know  it,  on  the  adamantine  rock  of 
conviction,  not  on  the  quick-sands  of  convenience,  on  the  ledge  of 
principle,  not  on  the  swampy  underground  of  popularity,  did  they 
plant  their  feet.  That  Israel  had  left  Palestine  not  as  an  exile  from4 
home,  bearing  the  burden  of  guilt,  doomed  to  yearn  for  the  return 
to  the  altars  on  Zion,  where  alone  he  could  discharge  his  religious 
obligations;  but  as  a  missionary,  to  suffer  and  sigh,  live  and  die  for 
the  truth  entrusted  to  him ; — that  onward  and  upward,  not  downward 
and  backward  the  ultimate  goal  of  his  pilgrimage  lay: — this  was,  this 
is'  our  fundamental  principle.  It  is  the  pivotal  point  of  divergence 
between  Orthodoxy  and  Reform.  From  it,  as  a  necessary  inference, 
flows  our  right  to  discard  Oriental  symbolism  and  Oriental  memories 
in  outward  forms,  in  liturgy  and  in  life.  ' '  Doings  and  doctrines  must 
be  harmonized!"  this,  therefore,  the  watchword  of  Reform,  as  con- 
ceived of  by  the  man,  whom  we  to-day  honor.  If  the  Jew  is  no  longer 
a  citizen  of  the  East,  desires  no  longer  ever  so  to  become  again,  his 
Synagogue  should  not  in  its  prayers  and  its  lessons  accentuate,  as 


10 

vital  truths,  hopes  and  beliefs  and  practices  which  from  the  rising 
sun,  from  Palestine  and  Jerusalem,  from  the  Davidic  dynasty  and 
Aaronitic  altar,  take  their  music  and  meaning.  ' '  Doings  and 
doctrines  must  be  harmonized!"  said  Hirsch.  For  Judaism  is  not 
law,  but  life,  not  ' '  Gesetz, "  but  "  Lehre. ' '  In  this  crystallized  anti- 
thesis, the  philosophy  of  Reform  is  tersely  stated.  To  a  truer 
level  this  distinction  lifted  the  practical  efforts,  than  even  the  method 
of  Holdheim,  who  attempted  to  refute  the  Talmud  by  the  Talmud, 
succeeded  in  doing.  This  distinction  is  also  broader  than  Einhorn's 
twofold  division  of  Jewish  tenets  into  Ceremonial  and  Moral  laws, 
ascribing  eternal  authority  to  the  latter,  the  essence,  while  holding 
the  former  to  be  of  a  temporal  character  only,  subject  to  change. 
And  though  Einhorn  consistently  classed  not  only  trivialities  and 
obsolete  institutions  under  this  head,  but  even  the  Sabbath — as  far 
as  the  choice  of  the  day  is  concerned, — yet  a  little  thought  will  show 
that  his  system  presented  difficulties,  which  Hirsch' s  is  free  from. 

Judaism  is  not  law.  To  conceive  of  it  as  such  has  been  the  fatal 
error  of  the  ages,  of  both  friend  and.  foe.  "Judaism  is  law"  so 
shouted  Paul,  the  arch-enemy  of  Judaism;  "the  Jews  are  slaves 
under  the  law. ' '  Do  our  good  orthodox  not  know  that  when  they,  too, 
raise  that  cry,  they  concede  the  .very  position  of  Christianity,  that, 
thus  they  are  the  Christianizers,  not  we.  Judaism,  the  Judaism  of 
the  Prophets  is  not  law.  It  is  doctrine,  Lehre.  It  is  not  exclusive, 
but  world-embracing!  Place  yourselves  on  the  high  plateau  of  the 
second  Isaiah,  listen  to  his  burning  words!  What  a  contrast  be- 
tween him  and  the  lame  rigidity  and  frigidity  of  Ezra's  and  Ne- 
hemiah's  legalism!  In  his  eyes  burns  the  glow  of  holy  enthusiasm, 
in  theirs  blazes  the  glare  of  cursed  fanaticism.  From  the  clear,  crisp 
heights  of  his  world-embracing  hope,  they  lapsed  into  the  narrow, 
dark  valley  of  bigotted  exclusiveness.  We  know  their  times;  we, 
perhaps,  recognize  the  necessity  of  their  measures.  We  understand 
the  dire  stress  under  which  later  Talmudic  Judaism,  to  save  itself, 
withdrew  behind  towering  ramparts  and  bulwarks  of  prescriptions 
and  prohibitions;  "fences  around  the  original  law!"  II^1^  10  IV4?  IV 
But  blame  us  not,  if  we  turn  for  inspiration  again  to  the  beaming  ideal 
countenance  of  the  great  seer  of  the  captivity,  and  spurn  the  for- 
bidding frown  of  the  zealous  but  narrow  legalists  of  the  second 


II 


Commonwealth!  In  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  prophets, 
Hirsch  showed  the  so-called  ceremonial  laws  to  be  only  symbols. 
Symbols  speak  a  picture  language.  All  symbols  merely  suggest  the 
underlying  truths  and  doctrines.  Symbols  are,  for  instance,  these 
flowers,  which  greet  us  this  morning.  In  themselves,  they  are  mute. 
As  messengers  of  your  veneration,  they  voice  a  heavenly  thought. 
But  they  will  wither,  the  thought  will  survive!  The  suggested  thoughts 
of  our  religious  ceremonies  were  formerly  understood  by  all.  In- 
carnations of  Jewish  eternalities,  they  were  welcome  and  proficient 
teachers  of  religious  truths.  But  the  living  spirit  in  course  of  time 
left  them.  They  uttered  sounds  in  a  foreign  tongue,  unintelligible. 
They  were  canonized,  then,  by  superstition  into  fetiches,  galvanized 
by  romanticism  into  seeming  beauty  and  warmth,  tolerated  by  in. 
difference,  scoffed  at  by  the  irreligious,  deplored  as  parasites  by  the 
deeply  religious.  Away  with  them,  when  they  are  dead!  The 
eternal  spirit  of  Judaism  lives.  Give  it  then  the  symbols  translucent, 
the  language  modern,  the  garb  beautiful,  through  which  its  ever 
true  teachings  may  shine  and  cheer  and  warm  and  lift  up!  A  slave's 
chain  must  not  be  Jacob's  jeweled  frontlets!  "Life  must  not  be 
crushed  in  the  skeleton  embrace  of  a  dead  past!"  (Einhorn)  Do- 
ings and  doctrines  must  be  an  indissoluble  unity!  Externalities 
must  not  crowd  out  eternalities! 

This  view  of  the  relation  of  the  Symbol  to  the  underlying  Thought, 
of  Life  to  Liturgy,  explains  at  once  the  position  your  Rabbi  has 
taken  on  the  Sabbath-question.  The  Sabbath  is,  indeed,  the  corner 
stone  of  Judaism.  If  Judaism,  as  Dr.  Hirsch  teaches  in  his  cate- 
chism, makes  "  work  religion,  and  religion  work,"  if  our  religion  is 
the  goodspell  of  labor,  its  dignity  and  its  liberty,  the  Sabbath  is  the 
preacher  of  this,  its  most  essential  doctrine.  But  is  it  chained 
to  the  day?  It  was  your  guide  who,  in  a  pamphlet,  laid  before  the 
Rabbinical  conference  at  Breslau  his  views,  and  urged  his  colleagues 
to  take  measures  here  also  to  heal  the  gaping  wound,  to  bridge  the 
yawning  chasm  between  profession  and  performance,  between  life 
and  teaching!  Say  not,  it  was  he  who  did  attempt  to  transfer  the  Sab- 
bath! Life  had  made  the  transfer.  This  concession  to  the  majority  is 
practically  made,  not  only  by  the  wicked  Radicals,  but  also  by  the 
pious  Orthodox  and  Conservative,  who,  at  best,  allow  others  to 


12 

keep  the  old  Sabbath  for  them.  The  Jew  having  become  a  citizen 
of  the  modern  world  cannot  devote— as  he  should — his  energies  to 
the  betterment  of  self  and  others  in  those  channels  for  which  he  is 
fitted,  if  blind  sentimentalism  stands  between  him  and  the  free  choice 
and  exercise  of  profession  and  pursuit,  exiling  him  to  a  Ghetto  of  his 
own  making,  now  that  the  Ghetto  of  hatred  has  crumbled.  "  Six 
days  shalt  thou  work!"  not  five.  Work  and  rest,  HDN^D  and 
nni.39*  are  corelatives,  the  two  conditions  of  the  B'rith,  the 
covenant.  This  is  thus  not  a  question  of  gain  and  profit,  it  is  an 
issue  of  life  and  death,  of  principle  and  free  prerogative.  Dr. 
Hirsch,  as  all  other  Radicals,  does  not  wish  to  sunder  the  ties 
which  bind  us  to  our  past  and  to  the  whole  community  of  Israel! 
Reform  Judaism  breaks  not  with  history.  It  spins  out  its  golden 
thread  into  the  texture  of  futurity.  We  are  not  a  sect,  a  branch 
lopped  off  from  the  parental  sapgiving  trunk!  No,  the  nexus  and 
connection  with  past  and  present  is  sacred.  And  as  the  whole 
community  is  not  ready  to  take  that  step  which  alone  would  give  us 
again  a  real  Sabbath,  without  landing  us  in  a  social  Ghetto,  where, 
I  ask,  was  the  wrong,  is  the  crime  in  that  kindred  movement,  which 
Dr.  Hirsch  was  the  first  to  father  in  this  country  ?  Is  it  treason  to 
utilize  the  day  which  is  de  facto  our  day  of  rest  for  the  purpose  of 
instruction  and  edification  ?  Rise  ye  from  your  graves,  ye  old 
Orthodox!  Cite  your  authorities  in  proof  of  the  claim  that  prayer 
and  preaching  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  is  sinful !  Ah,  you, 
Joseph  Karo,  you  Moses  Isserles,  would  find  none!  The  sorry 
glory  of  this  new  rHfJl'?  mfJI  belongs  to  those,  who  claim  to 
be  your  followers,  but  who,  though  often  editors  of  Jewish 
papers  and  Reverends  of  Congregations,  cannot  even  read  your 
writings!  "That  movement  has  condemned  itself,"  so  they 
shout;  "  it  is  a  failure!"  Is  it  ?  If  it  is,  your  Sabbaths  are  still  sorrier 
failures.  It  is  not  love  for  the  Sabbath-queen  which  causes  many 
to  oppose  this  movement,  but  allegiance  to  four  other  queens  and 
their  court;  it  was  not  love  for  Judaism,  but  love  of  the  honors  of  the 
lodge  room,  which  wrought  here  the  new  doctrine  that  our  Lodge 
Temples  may  be  opened  on  Sunday,  while  our  Congregational 
Temples  must  be  closed !  The  reports  of  your  President  show  that  the 
movement  has  strong  adherents  in  your  midst.  In  Chicago,  the 


movement  is  not  a  failure.  The  son,  carrying  out  the  intentions 
of  the  father,  has  been  privileged  to  see  his  seed  sprout  into 
fruitage — though  with  characteristic  honesty,  the  true  and  valiant 
yeomen  of  our  orthodox  press,  either  pass  over  the  fact  of  our  suc- 
cess with  silence,  or  do  not  hesitate,  ad  majorem  dei  gloriam,  to 
tell  downright  falsehoods! 

And  as  the  Sunday  movement  is  not  anti-Jewish,  so  in  its  every 
thought  true  Reform  is  enthusiastically  Jewish.  Hirsch's  work 
prove  this;  His  Religionsphilosophie  was  written  against  Hegel's 
"Christian  State"  dogma,  against  the  low  ranking  set  by  Hegel- 
ianism  to  Judaism.  His  Briefe  gegen  Bruno  Bauer  are  a  classical 
defence  of  our  religion.  And  what  is  his  Humanitat  als  Religion, 
if  not  the  grandest  apology  of  Judaism,  a  gauntlet  thrown  down  to, 
a  lance  pointed  against  the  Anti-Semitism  of  German  Masonry?  It 
shows  that  Judaism  and  Humanity  are  not  divorced,  but  twain  made 
one;  that  every  thought  of  true  humanity  is  of  Judaism,  a  flower 
grown  on  the  soil  of  Biblical  philosophy  and  prophetic  inspiration. 
His  other  writings,  scattered  in  different  periodicals  and  composed  in 
three  langu  ages,  breathe  the  same  spirit.  In  many  a  controversy 
was  he  engaged;  hot  and  bitter  often  was  the  fray.  Tooth  and  nail 
had  he  to  fight  his  opponents.  Read  them — his  contributions  to  the 
Jewish  Times  and  the  Zeitgeist— the.  two  organs  of  consistent  Reform 
— can  the  seed  there  scattered  have  fallen  on  barren  soil !  I  think, 
it  has  not ! 

Already  he,  who  stands  in  the  twilight  sun  of  the  eventide,  may 
enjoy  one  satisfaction,  gratifying  in  the  extreme.  What  he,  forty 
years  ago,  with  the  intuition  of  genius  almost  spontaneously  saw, 
latest  researches  in'  Biblical  literature,  in  ethnology  and  folk-lore  and 
religion,  have  corroborated.  What  Judaism  may  claim  as  its  own, 
is  the  prophetic  doctrine,  the  "  Lehre  /"  the  institutionalism  of  the 
Synagogue  is  legacy  of  heathen  times,  belongs  to  Hebrewism,  not 
Judaism.  The  prophets  often  protested  against  this  institutionalism. 
To  decry  these  researches  as  the  cranky  lucubrations  of;  Jew-haters 
and  infidels,  we  may  leave  to  the  ignorance  of  bigotry.  Notwith- 
standing its  impotent  protest,  the  fact  stands  that  our  forms — even 
of  Biblical  Judaism — as  such — are  of  heathen  origin.  The  Sabbath 
is  as  zform  an  old  Semitic  moon-festival;  our  holidays  are  originally 


nature-festivals;  our  sacrificial  code  a  copy  or  twin-sister  of  similar 
priestly  ordinances  among  other  nationalities,  the  dietary  and  levit- 
ical  purity  laws  are  not  exclusively  Jewish;  yea,  the  Rite  of  which 
they  would  now  make  a  Sacrament  of  admittance  into  Judaism, 
though  it  cannot  be  mentioned,  is  not  Abrahamitic.  The  prophets 
taught  Judaism.  They  utilized  the  old  heathen  vases  to  hold  the 
flower  of  their  Ethics!  Symbols  suggesting,  under  prophetic  transfor- 
mation, the  new  Judaism,  of  heathen  parentage  these  forms  are  not 
inseparably  bound  up  with  the  prophetic  idea.  We  gave  to  the 
world  the  tenets;  the  world  gave  us  the  forms.  So  was  it  at  all 
times;  so  will  it  ever  be. 

But,  if  the  Moses's  of  this  second  liberation  from  Egypt  have  this 
satisfaction  of  approval  at  the  hand  of  philology  and  history,  they 
have  not  the  proud  consciousness  of  a  practically  completed  victory. 
On  the  contrary,  a  strong  tide  has  set  in,  running  backward.  There 
is  nothing  surprising  in  this.  After  periods  of  great  enthusiasm, 
always  come  years  of  exhaustion.  History  moves  in  spiral  lines. 
The  generation  which  bore  the  yoke  of  Egypt,  never  enters  the 
land  of  the  future.  JOH  D*?^  p^H  DH1?  j'N  "DlOn  TH  We, 
cf  another  generation,  we  are  summoned  to  cross  the  Jordan.  Of 
the  trusty  leaders  who  led  the  Exodus,  but  three  remain, — and  upon 
the  youngest  of  them,  the  snow  of  seventy  winters  has  laid  its 
flakes.  Sam.  Adler  and  Phillipsohn  are  the  two  other  survivors, 
and  Zunz,  the  erudite,  with  the  burden  of  ninety  years,  keeping  now 
as  ever  aloof  from  practical  religious  issues.  The  other  stars  of  the 
clustered  constellation  of  brilliancy  have  sunk  beneath  the  horizon; 
who  can  tell  when  the  three,  standing  in  the  uncertain,  if  mellow 
circle  of  light,  precursor  of  advancing  Night,  will  follow  them  that 
set  in  their  van  ?  Ours  it  is  to  care  that  their  lights  have  not  shone 
in  vain.  These  flowers  will  wither,  these  voices  be  hushed.  Yon 
parchment  will  sere.  The  memory  will  abide — a  memory  which 
enfolds  the  pledge  to  realize  the  hopes  of  this  life  of  three  score  and 
ten.  To  me  a  voice  seems  to  call  out — with  somewhat  modified 
bearing—  UTTUpr  JIN  WO  $*?&  WHll^  H&'N  Happy  you 
young  men  will  only  be,  if  you  put  not  to  shame  the  work  of  these, 
our  Patriarchs!  The  danger  is  lurking  in  the  dark:  a  specious  plea  for 
peace  is  heard  on  all  side.  Compromise  threatens  to  displace  con- 


15 

viction.     This  is  not  as  it  should  be.     Ask  not,  care  not  for  the  ap- 
proval of  the  other  parties  in  Judaism!      We  are  Radicals:    not 
pluckcrs  up  by  the  root,  but  preservers  of  the  roots  of  our  religion. 
And  if  I  must  say  it,  it  is  this  courage  of  conviction  which  I  begin 
to  miss  in  the  Eastern  Reform  congregations!     Show  your  colors; 
and  if  Orthodoxy  or  Conservatism   cannot  follow,  lead  on,  march 
on!  Not  we  are  the  apostates;    rather  they  are!    apostates  from  the 
progressive  spirit  of  prophetism.      And  if  they  are  sincere,  and  we 
are,  we  stand  nearer  to  each  other,  than  were  we  on  a  common  plat- 
form of  platitudes,    contenting    none,    convincing  none,    carrying 
none!  Like  Gad  and  Reuben,  we  lead  the  van!    Upward,  onward 
then!  Our  religion  is  of  the  heart;  in  its  conflicts,  its  doubts,  and 
darings,   not  in  the  cravings  of  the  appetites,   feel  we  the  heaven- 
set  call  of  religion.       History,    the  curves   of  the  throbbing  heart 
of  mankind,    is  our  Sinai,  and  above  all  its  thunder  and   smoke, 
we  hear  the  proclamation:  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God!  —  a  God  who 
approves  of  our  beginning,  for  it  is  He,  who  leads  us  from  Egypt 
through  the  desert  to  the  land  of  liberty.     Like    Moses,   in  the 
Biblical  legend,  I  fancy  our  beloved  teacher  to-day  is  standing  on 
the   height  of  a  towering  mountain.       Not   backward   is  his   eye 
turned;  all  the  bitterness  of  the  pilgrimage  is  forgotten,  yea  even 
the  thought  that  the  people's  guilt  it  is  which  bars  his  entrance 
into  the  loved  land  of  dreams  and  hopes,  is  softened  and  blends  a 
subdued  undertone  with  the  melody  of  the  supreme,  superb  mom- 
ent.    Forward  his  eyes  wander:    there  laughs  the  river,  slopes  the 
grove,  waves  the  field  and  smiles  the  vineyard.       A  happy  people, 
happy  in  the  possession  of  that  which  the  fathers  strove  after,  tents 
in  peace  along  the  nestling  plains  fringing  rock,  sea  and  sand!   And 
a  whisper    wings     its    upward    flight:    {ir\2&&  "]f"D  "IC"'    may 
thy  strength  not  grow  less,  thou  who  hast  broken  tablets  of  stone  in 
holy  service!      His  is  the  dream  of  Moses;   ours  the  hope  that  his 
lot  may  rather  be  that  of  Caleb,  that  with  us  he  will  ford  the  rush- 
ing Jordan,  and  on  yonder  shore  will  still  be  able  to  say,  fN  TO3 
Piny  TlD  as  then,  so  now  my  strength  is  equal  to  the  task  assumed. 

Thanks,  then  to  you,  the  Congregation,  for  this  glad  day!  Thanks 
to  all  who  have  come,  of  their  own  prompting,  to  share  our  joy! 
Thanks  to  all  who  labored  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  long  pre- 


i6 

pared  plans!  But  from  these  roses  rises  a  peal,  its  echo  is  taken  up  by 
the  walls  and  domes,  along  the  opened  ark  its  ringing  tones  roll:  On- 
ward! Upward!  in  the  spirit  of  the  devoted  friend  and  teacher,  our 
father,  upward  with  the  prayer  that  he  may  be  spared  unto  us  for 
many  years  to  come,  onward  in  the  assurance  that  his  work,  our 
cause,  is  blessed  of  God.  Amen! 


UNIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


EDWARD  HIRSCH  &  Co., 

PRINTERS, 

117  NORTH  FOURTH   ST. 
PHILADELPHIA. 


E  as  = 

•y>  x— '>  I-  c    55  x— 'I  I  £7      •ig. 


J\E-UNIVER 


A     000  069  381 


